Osun urges striking lecturers to resume work

The Osun State Government has urged striking lecturers in the four state-owned tertiary institutions to resume work.

A High Court ordered lecturers of the State Polytechnic, Iree; State College of Technology, Esa-Oke; State colleges of education in Ilesa and Ila-Orangun to resume work last week, but they shunned the directive.

Commissioner for Human Resources and Capacity Building Miss Mobolaji Akande told reporters in Osogbo, the state capital, at the weekend that the demands of the lecturers have been met to a reasonable extent, despite the state’s “lean resources”.

She said: “The workers must be sincere in their clamour. The main issues, which are the implementation of the Consolidated Polytechnics and College of Education Academic Salary Structure (CONPCASS), heavy tax law, contributory pension, elongation of the retirement age from 60 to 65 and under-staffing have been addressed by the government’s negotiating team and the workers got the best.

“The implementation of the CONPCASS was approved by the Federal Government in 2009 and was adopted by the previous administration in Osun in the same year, but was never implemented. This administration approved the implementation from the zero level we inherited to 80 per cent.

“We offered the workers 90 per cent increase, but they rejected it at the last meeting. This is the maximum we can pay considering our meagre resources, particularly as we are going to recruit more lecturers as they requested. The government is negotiating based on its lean resources and it is difficult to accede to the 100 per cent they are insisting on.”

The commissioner explained that the government cannot elongate the retirement age of the workers until the House of Assembly deliberates on it and makes a law to that effect.

She said: “That is a matter for legislation. Unless that is dealt with by the lawmakers, the government is powerless.”

On the tax law, Miss Akande said the state government is powerless because it is on the exclusive list of the 1999 Constitution.

On contributory pension, she said the administration inherited non-remittance of the contributory pension from the immediate-past government, but has started remitting it.

Miss Akande said the process is ongoing, adding that most of the lecturers have received credit alerts from their Pension Fund Administrators.

On under-staffing, she said the institutions are yet to come up with their list of vacancies, so that the government can fill them.

The commissioner said the fact that the government is negotiating with the lecturers while they are still on strike showed that it was worker-friendly.

She urged the lecturers to have a rethink on the government’s offers in order not to jeopardise the future of the students.